§ 96. Captain Ryderasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate the extent to which crimes of violence have decreased or increased since corporal punishment has been abolished.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeBefore corporal punishment was abolished as a judicial penalty in September, 1948, the only important offences for which it could be imposed on male adults by the courts were offences of armed robbery and robbery with violence contrary to Section 23 (1) of the Larceny Act, 1916. In 1946 and 1947 there were, respectively, 804 and 842 offences of this nature known to the police in England and Wales; the corresponding figures for 1950 and 1951 were 812 and 633. The provisional figure for the first six months of 1952 is 359.
82WMost other crimes of violence against the person have increased in recent years. In 1948, 646 cases of felonious wounding were known to the police in England and Wales, whereas the figure for 1951 was 1,078. For malicious wounding the figures for 1948 and 1951 were 3,547 and 4,445, respectively; for rape 252 and 335; and for indecent assault on females 5,659 and 7,287. Corporal punishment could not, however, be imposed as a judicial penalty for any of these offences before 1948.